Episode 331: And the Ottomans...

state of the Empire and or Austria in general. As we have already seen, different Catholic and Protestant kingdoms had no issue allying themselves with the Islamic Ottoman state, felt that doing so gave them an advantage. But the Ottomans were also a kind of boogeyman that the Holy Roman Emperor could point to every time they wanted to raise

taxes or for some kind of unity. But the Turkish War that began in fifteen ninety three was different, and that it was so long and so costly for both sides and left the Habsburg state essentially financially and politically bankrupt. That was Emperor Rudolph, who confidently began the conflict in fifteen ninety three. The thirteen year struggle contributed to a chain of problems that kept the Ottoman Empire out of the Thirty Years War that ensured a relatively tranquil piece

for Hungary. With hindsight, this was undoubtedly a benefit for the Habsburgs, since it enabled them to concentrate on the problems of the empire and their Western and Northern European emperies. However, this was by no means clear at the time, and the Turkish menace remained a constant source of anxiety. Worse, as I mentioned, the Turkish War left the Habsburgs financially bankrupt,

contributing to the outbreak of renewed conflict in sixteen eighteen. Now, look, the Ottomans were the superpower of the early modern world. Their empires stretched for two point three million square kilometers across three continents. They had at least twenty two million inhabitants, well over three times the number in the Habsburg monarchy. Much of the initial impetus of the empire was lost, as we know after the death of sule Mon the Magnificent in fifteen sixty six, but it would be wrong

to categorize the Ottomans in decline. They remained at the terror of Europe, associated by Protestants and Catholics alike with the scourge of gods and to punish a sinful mankind, and viewed with a kind of mixture of awe and revulsion. Now, the internal problems of the empire made the Ottomans frankly more unpredictable in their actions, aiding to an already unstable situation in Southeast Europe at the point where their empire met that of the Habsburgs and the lands of the

Poles to the north. The war that broke out in fifteen ninety three was essentially a struggle between these two powers, the Habsburgs and the Ottomans. We're trying to extend influence over the intervening region while denying access to their rivals. Here we're really talking about a couple of key areas. We're in the Balkans. We're talking about Serbia, Transylvania, Hungary. To an extent, Hungary was already split into Habsburg and

Ottoman spheres of influence. The Emperor controlled the north and southwest along with Croatia, while the Sultan commanded the central area and the southeast. Neither side had a clear position in the region. The to the east of Hungary, which was split into four principalities, all of which were nominally at least under the control of the Turks, but pursuing varying degrees of autonomy. The area along the northern shores of the Black Sea belonged to the Crimean Tartars, the

long descendants of Djengis Khan. These had paid tribute to the Ottomans since the later fifteenth century. They provided useful auxiliaries for the Turkish armies, but they were largely left alone, mostly because they served as a key buffer between the Ottomans and the Russian Czar as we know. Further to the northeast, the three Christian principalities of Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania lay to the north and west of the Tartars. They likewise paid tribute but were or open to influence

by Poland and Austria. The Poles wanted access to the Black Sea and pushed into the area between Moldovia and the Crimea. Polish influence grew pronounced in Moldovia during the fifteen nineties, and they also worked within the internal and domestic politics of Transylvania and Willachia. Of the three principal and peripheral territories, Transylvania is by far the most significant to our story. Transylvania had been a part of Hungary until the fifteen forties. It was composed of four major

and several minor communities. Transylvania was an impoverished region. Over half of its territory was blanketed in forest, and only about a fifth of its total land was under cultivation.

Transylvania's terrain also made it extremely difficult to conquer. As a consequence, both the Habsburgs and the Ottomans looked on the region as a potential buffer zone, though in reality they wanted nothing more than to add it to their respective empires. Now, from the Habsburg perspective, this was all about defense, at least for the moment. To keep the Ottomans at bay, the Habsburg essentially turned their Hungarian borders

and their periphery states into a militarized defensive zone. I mean that this was about a forty mile deep swath of territory that ran the entire border between the Hungarian and Ottoman states. The heart of the defense were twelve major and one hundred and thirty minor fortifications. By the fifteen seventies, these posts were manned by no less than

twenty two thousand men who formed permanent garrisons. However, because of financial constraints, the Habsburgs often had to rely on local magnates to keep their defensive border in some form of fighting shape. Now, before we go on to the Turkish war itself, however, I want to spend a little time breaking down early seventeenth century warfare so we can understand how the coming conflict is going to be fought.

A long Turkish War saw the largest mobilization of troops in the history of the Holy Roman Empire and really the habsburg Lands at least since fifteen sixty eight. It was the opportunity for many soldiers to gain experience of major operations prior to sixteen eighteen. In that way, it functioned a lot like the US Mexican War and the lead up to the American Civil War. It was an opportunity for many generals to try out new techniques and frankly,

to learn a lot about how warfare had changed. The list of Rudolph's officers reads like a roll call of senior generals of the first half of the Thirty Years War. If we look at it. There were Germans, Austrians, but there were also Italians and some Spaniards who participated in the Turkish War and were also going to play major

roles to come in the Third Years War. The presence of some of these outside figures has been largely overlooked by military historians who concentrate on warfare and Western Europe and underestimate the impact of the Turkish campaigns on subsequent developments. This Western focus is kind of embedded in this concept of what we call the military revolution, which has been

an accepted way of viewing early modern warfare. The proponents of this approach stress Spain and the Dutch, as we've talked about already in Sweden, as sort of the leading stars of these new ways of fighting during the sixteenth century. These are new ways that rely on gunpowder, weaponry wielded

by large disciplined units. Innovations and tactics and strategy allegedly made warfare more decisive, as well as increasing its scale and impact, and state and economy developments you could fit into sequence with one power replacing another as the most

efficient war maker. Beginning, we have the Spanish, whose predominance gets shaken first by the Dutch, who develop a more flexible military system, and then later on Sweden, which improves upon than, of course, financially, which France is going to

perfect in the later seventeenth century. There's been little attention paid to the Imperial forces during the Thirty Years War because they're often perceived to have clung to the obsolete Spanish system of the past that is associated with essentially positional warfare. In fact, Spanish ways of fighting often proved successful and were in constant evolution rather than being static.

Methods that were developed from the fifteen seventies to deal with the Dutch were also very effective against the Turks,

who likewise frequently evaded battle and sheltered behind fortifications. However, the Hungarian theater of war encouraged its own practices that influenced how armies would fight later on in Germany, so it's more appropriate I think if we take a step back and we look at a macro level of fighting in the Holy Roman Empire in this era as really a combination of a bunch of different styles, rather than

as a one size fits all approach. The Spanish style developed following the Real Military Revolution in the sense of a largely technologically driven change in warfare. This is the time period between fourteen seventy and fifteen twenty that really saw the widespread adoption of handheld firearms by both cavalry and infantry, and their combination with new shock tactics by

large discipline bodies of troops. These developments, in turn, sprang from changes in metallurgy and gunpowder milling that made firearms truly effective for the first time in Europe. Relatively rapid improvements followed in both handguns and cannon that forced commanders to re think their use of these weapons. Guns and artillery were deployed on a larger scale in battle, and were combined with existing weapons in new offensive and defensive tactics.

The pace of technological change slowed from the mid sixteenth century, by which time all basic weapons had appeared, while further developments were restricted by manufacturing problems. For example, cannon production lagged considerably behind ballistic theory because gun foundries were unable to deliver pieces that matched the potential that mathematicians had calculated. It proved difficult to bore a straight tube in a

solid barrel before the mid seventeenth century. Instead, the canons that we're going to see used iron rod coated with clay, horsehair and manure. That bore was covered with a mixture of molten copper, tin, lead, and brass, and the mold would form essentially a bronze barrel. The core was then removed and a drill used to finish the to the required caliber and a method that was time consuming and by no means reliable. There was amazing variety of heavy guns,

but they essentially fell into two types. There were cannons. These are short barreled, thin walled pieces, firing round shot, usually between about twenty five to seventy five pounds. They were used mostly to attack fortifications. These guns were extremely heavy and were required more than ten horses or more to move them into position. Then there were the so called culverins. These were long barreled thicker, tubed weapons. These were safer to use and had greater range and accuracy.

They had stronger barrels that required more metal, making them generally twice as heavy as cannons firing shots of equivalent weight. These tended to be used for six to twelve pound cannon balls. They were produced in smaller pieces, and they could be pulled into position by as few as two horses. These guns were supplemented for siege work by mortars, which were short, stubby guns that could fire shot in a large,

overarching ballistic fashion. Beginning in the seventeenth century, fire and arms started to diverge into cavalry pistols and muskets for infantry men. Muskets were around four feet long in the seventeenth century and had a firing range of around two hundred and fifty yards. The effective range of a shot which it would do actual damage, however, was less than half of that. There were heavier weapons with a longer range, but those generally required some sort of stand to hold it,

which of course limited mobility. Muskets typically used newer flint locks to fire, while hand goods or pistols used mechanical wheel locks. Contemporary drill books convey a false image that it elect abate sequence of hand, arm and body movements were all necessary to load and fire a musket. In fact, the carefully itemized movements reflected the prevailing scientific concern to fix and understand human movement rather than an actual practice.

The most complicated maneuver was the countermarch, intended to provide continuous fire during an advance or a retreat. Each rank had to fire in turn. Those who had just discharged their weapons remained stationary to reload, while the next line stepped through the gaps in each man to take his turn.

The Dutch practiced the retiring counter march enabling them to fire while avoiding contact with the approaching enemy.

The Spanish preferred much deeper formations of ten two fifteen, as much as sometimes even twenty five ranks, and appeared to have let their men fire in their own time, simply ignoring those with lighter, quicker firing weapons nearer.

as a club. It was considered best practice by the seventeenth century to combine musket men with pikemen to defend the formation against a charge while the musket men were reloading the formation when the pikes were presented, would quite frankly, have looked not much different than Alexander the Great's phalanx about nineteen hundred years earlier. The seventeenth century is also when we see armies develop uniforms for the first time.

The Swedes are usually given credit for that innovation, though it appears that Germans were using uniforms prior to sixteen eighteen. When the Thirty Years War erupted, two states effectively set the standard for formation and tactics heading into our conflict, the Spanish and the Dutch. The large square formation that became known as the tercero, after the term used by the Spanish for their infantry formations. The thinner, longer Dutch

formation became known as the battalion. It's become historical convention to see the Dutch formation as inherently superior to the Spanish, not the least because of its association with firearms that have appeared to later generations as more obviously advanced than Pike's weapons, of course, first used by the ancient Greeks. This distinction is not accurate, nor does it correspond to sixteenth century military thinking that drew directly on the ancient

world for its inspiration. The deeper block formation offered better all around fighting ability than the thinner Dutch lines, where each unit relied on its neighbor standing firm or its vulnerable flanks would be exposed if the.

of fewer, larger terseros. These could be positioned in echelon which means they're diagonally positioned in sort of a checkerboard fashion about two hundred meters apart. If one became detached or separated, it was big enough that it could just fight on its own until it was rescued.

large horses. Cavalry mounts were around sixteen hands that's how you measure a horse high, weighing up to almost four hundred and fifty pounds, and could gallop at nearly thirty five miles per hour, though the way to the rider meant that those attacks were delivered at a much much slower pace than that. Horses were conditioned by being exercised and field full of blazing straw and heaps of rotting meat to get them used to the sites and smells

of the battlefield. They were also trained to kick and maneuver in formation at various gates. As a result of changing tactics. Two types of heavy cavalry evolved. One was the lancer, which is kind of what it sounds like. These were quasi armored, knight like fighters who carried heavy steel tipped wooden lances capable of executing the kind of charge that heavy cavalry had been doing for centuries.

figher power. The carricle was less tiring on horses and required less resolve from soldiers than a charge, since men did not need to close with the opponents. Even men trained to charge home with cold steel would often panic and break off their attack about ten meters from their targets, quote bouncing back to their starting positions. According to one source end quote. This explains why contemporary accounts speak of

repeated charges by the same unit in battle. The desire to improve mounted firepower led to a third type of I guess we call medium power cavalrymen called the caribiner or arquebuser, equipped with a large arquebus or caribbeine within greater range and penetrating power than the kystol. These generally were less armor, usually no more than a helmet, may be a breastplate to coat, boots and gauntlets. They rode

smaller horses, which were cheaper to raise. They carried two pistols and a sword as well, so they could be used with shock tactics, and consequently gradually replaced more expensive curisers and lancers. By about sixteen thirty. Many regiments were composed of a mix of curissers and arquebussers into the sixteen twenties, with the former deployed in the front ranks

if the unit made a charge. The fourth type of cavalry was a form of mounted infantry called dragoons, who rode light horses or ponies and generally lacked any armor, including the high boots that were difficult to walk in. Dragoons were a mix of pikemen and shot, using their mounts for rapid movements to stiffen scouting parties, to support infantry. Skirmishers sent forward to secure key positions or occasionally to turn the enemy flank. The last type was often employed

on similar tasks, but remained mounted to fight. These light cavalry were most numerous in the Hungarian, Polish and Transylvanian armies. Then where there were the last groups that I want to briefly mention, and those are the Cossacks. Cossacks were an ethnic group centered around what is today southern Poland and Ukraine. They were light armored and carried lances. Cossacks

made up around one fifth of all imperial cavalry. While they do not play a large role in the Thirty Years War, they will play an increasingly important role in our Eastern European story going forward. So I wanted to mention them now. Now, the primary unit of military organization for both infantry and cavalry was the regiment. The regiment was made up of companies, and in the Empire these were still called banners, a holdover from the old medieval period.

Companies were organized based on recruiting needs, not around tactics or strategy. Captains were contracted by local rulers to raise companies based on the needs of the region. These companies then formed together larger regiments. Interestingly, the military hierarchy of the twenty first century was relatively in place already by the year sixteen hundred. There were generals, colonels, captains, lieutenants

of various kinds, and majors. Now, colonels and captains did most of the heavy lifting because they did most of the recruiting. Spanish and Imperial colonels recruited regiments of around two to three thousand infantry and maybe a thousand horse. From there, these groups would be broken down in different amounts based upon tactical considerations. Battles hacked sought to combine the three main military arms, cannon, musketers, and then of cavalry.

Battles generally opened with a cannonade at under a thousand paces, while skirmishers went forward to probe and test the enemy position. These moves bought time for the rest of troops to assemble and could be used simply to delay an enemy while the army made good an escape. The preference for large infantry formations kept up deployment relatively varied, since these could be interspersed with artillery and cavalry in different patterns

according to the terrain and the commander's intentions. Dutch style firing tactics became increasingly influential, and so the infantry tended to be massed in the center in one or more continuous line, with only narrow gaps between each battalion to prevent enemy cavalry from striking the vulnerable flanks. Second and subsequent lines were kept usually between let's say, about one

hundred or three hundred yards behind the first. If there were any closer, they risked shooting their comrades in the back, but any further back it would be too far away to assist in the event of a crisis. This linear tactic encouraged commanders to place their cavalry on the wings of the infantry lines, in a manner that became standard

in later seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Full adoption of linear tactics was inhibited by doubts about the relative merits of firepower over the old charge, and of course, by the conditions in Eastern Europe were the Turks and others employed more flexible, enveloping tactics, using large numbers of light troops. Imperial generals operating in Hungary relied on earthworks or wagons

and other movable defenses to protect their foot soldiers. Generally, each of the three arms fought against its mirror counterpart. The artillery sought to take out the enemy heavy guns before its own troops move forward and obscured the feel of fire. The cavalry, of course, would engage the opposing horse, trying to drive them from the field and expose the flanks of the enemy foot, much as they had been doing all the way back in the era of Alexander

the Great. Each side hoped that it would have sufficient artillery and cavalry left to tip the balance by the time the slower moving foot soldiers had closed within musket range. Since the combination of two or more arms was generally superior to only one as it is today, infantry could be pinned down by the threat of a cavalry attack, forcing them to remain in defensive formation while the enemy

pounded them with artillery and musketry. Firepower could also be used to crack opposing formations encouraging them to make a premature attack or lose cohesion and so open them up to a charge. Generalship and tactical innovation relied on variations in this standard pattern to achieve the effective combination of three arms at an earlier stage in the engagement, thereby

securing an easy and less costly victory. Now, the Turkish War, which lasted from fifteen ninety three to sixteen oh six, did not give either side the opportunity to test many new tactical developments. Most of the conflict consisted of sieges and skirmishes. The war developed because of a conflict between the ethnic Croats and the Ottomans. The Crowats rebelled and managed to score a quick victory over the nearby Ottoman garrison,

which encouraged Emperor Rudolph to consider intervention. So in the end, this was a purely opportunistic war from the standpoint of the Habsburgs and the Holy Roman Empire, which saw it as a good opportunity to steal Transylvania away from the Ottomans for good. Rudolph believed that other entities could be brought in, such as the Russians, who might support the war effort and perhaps deal a major blow to the Ottoman Empire. The Reichstag convened in fifteen ninety four and

voted a tax subsidy to support the war effort. Everyone was on board, but after all the effort, the result was a crushing disappointment.

it was unlikely that the emperor could win. The Sultan managed to keep between sixty to one hundred thousand men in the field and so generally was able to keep the initiative on the Ottoman side throughout. The war opened in the south, where the main Ottoman offensive made some gains at Croatian expense in fifteen ninety three, before the onset of winter forced them all to suspend operations. Thereafter,

the Croatian Slovenian and Senji borders held their own. Other Ottoman assaults against both the ends of Lake Balatan were driven off, and by November fifteen ninety three, the Habsburgs made periodic counterattacks from this area, trying to seize a nearby Turkish fortress that guarded the southwestern approach to Buddha. The next Hungarian offensive hit the crucial central Hungarian sector, scoring a major success with the capture of a few major towns in fifteen ninety four, opening up the way

to Vienna. Habsburg efforts concentrated on reversing or at least offsetting this blow. An Archduke Matthias managed to puncture the Ottomnan line by taking Grand and Visigrad the following year. The Sultan then retaliated by shifting the war north eastward, leading his army in person in fifteen ninety six and defeating a relief army, which was really the war's only major pitched battle. All attention now turned to three principalities, Transylvania, Wallachia,

and Moldavia. These entered the war on the imperial side, defying the Sultan. Transylvania was seen as a strategically essential region to the Habsburgs. Therefore, the moment seemed opportune. The current Transylvanian prince seemed to welcome a Habsburg takeover, but the subsequent invasion of Transylvania went disastrously. There were some back and forth fighting, the Habsburgs were not ever even able to gain any serious advantage. Instead, unofficial Polish intervention

made any thought of annexation obsolete. But rather than cutting their losses, the Habsburgs decided to step up operations.

as a result of not being paid. Matthias tried to revive the situation by capturing Pest in October sixteen oh two, which actually caused a brief crisis for the Ottomans, who now fit revolts in five separate provinces. Sultan Metmet died of a heart attack and was succeeded by his thirteen old son, ahm At. The First jah Abbas now seized his chance and attacked from Persia, recapturing Iserbaijan and Georgia

in sixteen oh four. Faced with the war on two fronts ahm At open peace talks with the Emperor in February of sixteen oh four, but by making excessive and frankly ludicrous demands, Rudolph squandered his last chance to end the war before his own political position collapsed. Illustrating the intersection of issues that will prove important in the Thirty Years War, Rudolph undermined his own position in Transylvania by continuing to insist on a pro Catholic policy throughout habsburg Lands.

All this did was make disaffected nobles in Hungary sympathetic to resistance. In Transylvania, a major Calvinist Hungarian landowner led a successful upright which managed to cut off Habsburg's supply lines to Transylvania, leaving roughly five thousand Imperial soldiers isolated by roughly January sixteen oh five. This landowner was then proclaimed the new Transylvanian Prince by the local diet that

same February. The Habsburg position quickly unraveled. Ottoman troops drove north toward Hungary throughout the summer of sixteen oh four. By July, the Imperial army had yielded pest a portion of modern day Budapest, and Hungary itself teetered on the verge of collapse. Ultimately, what ended up happening here is the Hamsburgs had no choice but to try to get

the Transylvanian and Hungarian nobles back firmly behind them. In order to do that, they ended up granting huge religious concessions as well as political autonomy for both Protestants and Calvinists living in the region. Luckily for the Habsburgs by this time, by the mid sixteen head about both sides, the Ottomans and the Empire were fully exhausted. The Emperor

and the Sultan both desperately needed a final peace. The Emperor agreed to a final gift of two hundred thousand florins to the Ottomans, but that was an exchange for recognition of the Emperor and the Sultans as equal, and the elimination of a thirty thousand florin yearly tribute that the Habsburgs had been paying to the Ottoman Empire since fifteen forty seven. The war, though, had been devastating to imperial forces, but the peace did offer a major change

in the status quo. The Habsburgs were no longer willing to see themselves as a minor player in this relationship. Coupled with the Laws of Georgia and iSER Paijan in sixteen eighteen, the outcome of the war indicated a major shift in the European balance of power away from the Ottomans and toward Europe in general. Frankly, it was Ottoman wid weakness, not Hungarian strength, which had allowed the Transylvanians

to join the fight in the first place. But for the Habsburgs this is all far from great news, particularly in the short run. The weakness of the imperial state evident during the Turkish War led almost immediately to another debilitating conflict, the Brothers Quarrel. The moment the Turkish War ended,

the Archdukes Rudolph and Matthias turned on each other. The immediate cause of the conflict had been the perceived poor performance of the Austrian military in the war, but the underlying cause had a lot more to do with the unresolved succession issues. Rudolph had agreed with his five brothers in April of fifteen seventy eight not to repeat the partition of fifteen sixty four that had fragmented Austrian lands.

As the eldest representative of the main branch, he would retain Austria, Bohemia and Hungary, giving his brothers allowances and roles as provincial governors, pending more suitable accommodations when they can be found. Unfortunately, the spread of Protestantism throughout the Empire reduced the number of opportunities within the Imperial Church, as bishoprics fell slowly but steadily under Lutheran administration in

the fifteen eighties. One of the five brothers, Wenzel, died early in September of fifteen seventy eight, which meant that there were only four brothers to be provided for. Ernest, the next eldest, appeared content with his post as governor of Austria and Hungary after fifteen seventy eight, and his

death removed him entirely from the equation in fifteen ninety five. Albert, the youngest surviving brother, was in Spain after fifteen seventy one, and was eventually chosen by Philip the Second as the husband for his daughter Isabella, whom Rudolph had previously refused

to marry. Though his name was invoked by a number of parties throughout these years, Albert's Spanish associations prevented him from becoming a serious contender for succession in Austria and throughout the Empire, which at this point was decisively German. A childhood illness had kept Maximilian, the middle brother, from the customary trip to Spain. He had been groomed by his mother for a career in the Imperial Church, but

showed more military ambitions. A compromise was found by engineering his appointment as the Grand Master of the Old Crusading Teutonic Order in fifteen eighty five. Maximilian had by far the strongest and widest contacts among the German princes. He now emerged as the only honest broker who could act between the princes and the archdukes. Matthias probably seemed like the least likely candidate throughout all the turmoil of the early seventeenth century. He had been relatively uninterested as a

prince early on in life. It was moderate, which meant that perhaps he might be able to solve the religious crisis facing the Habsburgs, But he foolishly joined the Dutch revolt in fifteen seventy seven, albeit only briefly, and that move cost him a lot of personal standing at court. Still, by sixteen hundred it was clear that Matthias was beginning

to mature a little bit. Rudolph by the early sixteen hundreds was increasingly erratic in his behavior, and this condensed some of the archdukes that they had no choice but to act. The Spanish ambassador had already raised the possibility of deposing the emperor in sixteen oh three, but the

Pope was reluctant to condone such a step. But the actual and abysmal performance of the imperial troops throughout the Ottoman conflict subsequent conflicts in Hungary and Transylvania convinced everyone, including the Pope, that such scruples were no longer necessary. In April of sixteen oh five, everyone agreed that Rudolph would at least be forced to hand over Hungary. Unfortunately, all this did was start the dominoes falling. What ends up happening here is once Rudolph is compelled to hand

over Hungary, which he does to Maximilian. As a result, what ends up transpiring is now every little territory throughout the Empire decides that it's going to throw in with one of the three brothers, Rudolph, Matthias or Maximilian. And what they start to do is they start to shop around to see what the best deal is that they can get from any one of the three brothers. Whoever is going to offer them more autonomy is the brother

that they'll swear allegiance to. Rudolph is in perhaps the worst position here, as everybody seems to be fleeing from his position like rats from a sinking ship. Ultimately, it came down to the Bohemians. In the Bohemians were to

go against the Emperor, he would effectively be alone. Moravia paid homage to Matthias on June twenty ninth, sixteen oh eight, in exchange for promises of religious and political liberty, and here is where we continue to see the intersection between faith and politics that will utterly plague the Habsburgs for

the next half century. Then, in November of that same year, Matthias was recognized as the new King of Hungary, after again having provided ample promises of autonomy for everyone living there. Next on the list was Austria. Austria was willing to go along with Matthias as well, but only if he gran serious reforms. In the end, he agreed and conceded most of the demands, halting Catholic reform, restoring religious assurances of fifteen seventy one, and extending this by a verbal

promise of free worship for all crown lands. The painstaking effort to combine Habsburg authority and Catholic conformity over the previous thirty.

demanded action. Some of the men gathered openly shouted, quote, this king is no good, we need.

major war followed. While sixteen oh eight to sixteen oh nine witnessed remarkable achievements for the Protestants of the Empire, little did they know that all they had done was so the seeds of a war that would nearly see Protestantism eliminated within.